WWE Should Get Rid of the Celebrity Wing From the Hall of Fame

By Maurice D. Proffit

Photo Courtesy of thecampussocialite.com

Its bad enough that the WWE refuses to create a physical Hall of Fame location to encompass displays that honor the inductees into the WWE Hall of Fame. Its bad enough that lately WWE has hot-shotted a few inductees in the past few years just to have a few headlining names. But I have to ask, is the “Celebrity Wing” of the WWE Hall of Fame even necessary to have?

On this past Monday on Raw, the next inductee into the WWE Hall of Fame class of 2013 was announced and we found out that it would be Donald Trump. As fans will know, Donald Trump was instrumental in a variety of WrestleMania events. He hosted both Wrestlemania 4 and 5 in Trump Plaza in 1988 and 1989, the only time there was consecutive back to back venues for the WWE’s premier pay-per-view. In addition, Trump was in attendance at Wrestlemania 7, 20 and was a part of one of the main events for Wrestlemania 23. This year, in Madison Square Garden he will take his place as a member of the Hall of Fame.

Overall, is the Celebrity Wing even necessary? Is it needed? Isn’t it a bit uncomfortable when we have to endure a celebrities induction speech and they’re trying not to laugh because even they know and recognize the silliness of what is taking place? For some celebrity inductees, they actually earned a spot into the hall. Trump would be one of them, same with Mike Tyson. But Drew Carey? No. William “The Fridge” Perry? No.

It’s clear that some of these names are being inducted so the WWE can get a mention on ESPN or Access Hollywood, but its almost always followed up with a snarky comment made by whomever is broadcasting the information because they cant get over the fact that the WWE even has a Hall of Fame in the first place. For celebrity inductees such as The Fridge and Carey, they only had one-time appearances in the WWE, and depending on who you ask, they were very forgettable. So when you have a celebrity being inducted into the hall that only had a “blink of the eye” moment, Celebrity Wing or not, it dilutes the importance and prestige of the hall.

My recommendation is to dump the celebrity wing, but keep the likes of Mike Tyson and Donald Trump in the traditional Hall of Fame, and moving forward be very selective of which “celebrities” are inducted as well. When just any other person that has been on a few television shows and had a cup of coffee with the WWE is welcomed into this selective group, every person involved from the WWE, to the mass media network, to the fans–even the person being inducted–all know that the concept is ridiculous.